Blues honor memory of Demitra and Korolev

Players died in plane crash killing whole team

Demitra played for Quenneville

November 08, 2011|By Chris Kuc, Chicago Tribune reporter

ST. LOUIS — It was an emotional night for members of both the Blackhawks and Blues organizations as there was a pregame ceremonial honoring the memories of Pavol Demitra and Igor Korolev at Scottrade Center before Tuesday night's game.

The two were among players who perished in early September when the plane carrying the Kontinental Hockey League team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl crashed in Russia.

Hawks Marian Hossa and Jamal Mayers were former teammates of Demitra and head coach Joel Quenneville and assistant Mike Kitchen coached him while with the Blues.

"(Demitra) was my close friend," said Hossa, who has the No. 38 affixed to his skates to honor his former neighbor in Slovakia. "He will always be with me. It's a great thing what they're doing honoring the former players. Those guys deserve it."

Added Mayers: "It's still surreal to think what happened. I was a teammate of Pavol's and a friend of his for a long time. It's hard to believe that he's gone."

Quenneville said of Demitra: "Some guys stick out in your mind that you were fortunate to coach. He was a special guy."

"I studied the history of boxing (and) I was pretty interested in it when I played in Philadelphia," said Emery. "(Frazier) ended up coming out to the practice rink one day and hung out with us a bit.

"Those old rivalries with him and (Muhammad) Ali … those were some great moments. Guys like that, they were big athletes, but they were big, political athletes as well."

One-timers: After being a healthy scratch the previous 11 games, winger Rostislav Olesz was in the Hawks' lineup against the Blues. "I haven't played for many games so this is a chance," Oleswz said. "It's tough watching … (so) I'm happy to be back." … Scratches for the Hawks were defensemen Sami Lepisto and Sean O'Donnell and winger Bryan Bickell.